Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing but Michael Okuda.
Oh and thanks for the reviews so far.
"Michael-kun," Kaito prodded him.
"Uungh?" Michael rolled over sleepily.
"Wake up."
"What?" he murmured.
"Look what's in the paper," Kaito said, holding it up.
Michael squinted at the headlines. Not quite awake yet, he rubbed his eyes and tried again.
"Debut of Kid Jr.?" he read. Sighing dramatically, he flopped back over into his bed and covered his face with his hands.
Kaito laughed. "Anyway, breakfast is ready."
Michael looked at his watch. "Nine-thirty already?"
Kaito looked at his watch in surprise. "Yeah, I guess so. Good thing school's out, huh?"
"Yep," agreed Michael. He rolled out of bed and picked up the newspaper. "Oh, good," he said, laughing. "They got Nakamori's face when I popped up there."
"Yeah!" Kaito chortled. "That was priceless!"
"I think I'm going to keep that picture," Michael said, grinning.
"Definitely," Kaito said, laughing. "But come on, breakfast won't wait all day."
"Inspector Nakamori," the reporter said, "do you have any comments on Kid's new accomplice, dubbed 'Kid Jr.'?"
"Well, assuming it is an accomplice and not some trick with mirrors or something," Nakamori said, "Kid's trying to make the police department look like idiots by having a child stealing jewelry from right in front of us. Well, I won't stand for it. If you're watching this, Kid, or Kid Jr., or whoever you are, you're not escaping the next heist!"
"Good luck with that," Kaito said dryly, switching off the TV.
Nakamori watched in disbelief as the child materialized out of the smoke cloud and picked up the necklace. "It's him!" he hollered. "The accomplice! Get him!"
Michael somersaulted over the ranks of policemen coming for him and made for the window. Just then a helicopter with a spotlight rose up, shining directly on the window.
Michael pulled out his pistol. Twirling it once, he aimed at the window and fired. The resulting cloud of high-velocity sand particles smashed the window, and Michael, climbing onto the sill, leaped to the helicopter, somehow managing to grab hold of one of the runners. The pilot, confused, did a series of maneuvers, trying to find him.
Michael finally let go and dove straight down, towards the crowd. He clutched his hat and tucked the necklace into his pocket.
Just then there was a flash of white, and Kaito caught him neatly and swooped away on the hang-glider. "You're not ready to try blending in with the crowd yet," he scolded him. "Remember the last time you tried that?"
Michael nodded. "Sorry," he apologized.
"No problem," Kaito said, angling away from the buildings. "Ready? One, two, three!" He let go of Michael.
Michael snapped out the hang glider as he'd been taught. "Yahoo!" he hollered.
"And we've got a helicopter on our tail," Kaito said, looking back. "Let's split up and meet at the usual place. Use your radio if you need help."
"All right," Michael waved and turned to the right. Kaito swerved to the left and the helicopter pilot, confused for a moment, finally turned left after Kaito.
That was good, because Michael wasn't sure he was good enough with the hang glider to outrun a helicopter yet. He took the scenic route to the park, taking advantage of the lack of pursuit to practice maneuvering. When he arrived, Kaito was waiting for him, as expected.
"Not bad tonight," Kaito commented. "You're getting pretty good. I think soon you'll be ready to do some real heists."
"Weren't those real heists?" Michael asked, mildly annoyed.
"No," Kaito said calmly, "those were more of practice sessions. You always had me to back you up, and there wasn't really anything complicated that you had to face--barring navigating through those air ducts, anyway."
"So what's coming up, then?" Michael asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Have you ever heard of Suzuki Jirokichi?" Kaito asked, flashing him a mischievous grin.
